Analysis of Rail Head Stresses in the Heavy Haul Regime

Abstract

Three-dimensional finite element analyses have been made of elastic contact stresses in a rail head. Two different contact situations were considered: firstly, that of wheel/rail contact on top of the rail, and secondly, gauge corner contact. The former was also treated using an analytical approach based on the theory of Hertz. Stress components resulting from these analyses have been referred to the local axes of a typical incipient flaw, and used to map out the susceptibility to fatigue cracking of various regions of the rail head